Can This Israeli Startup Hack Your Phone?

Many computer-security companies trumpet their skills and accomplishments. Some take another tack altogether, like NSO Group.

This Israeli startup no longer operates a website. But it has peddled its wares to the Mexican government, gotten on the radar of Central Intelligence Agency officials and recently was bought by an American private equity firm.

A key selling point: NSO claims it can help monitor smartphones of people targeted by government agencies.

One person who recently saw a demo by the company said its technology silently took over a BlackBerry device. On LinkedIn profiles, its engineers also claim an expertise in Google’s and Apple’s mobile operating systems.

NSO operates in a special niche among the many companies operating in the field of smartphone security, a topic expected to be a focus of the annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas next week. It represents a new push by governments to keep up with the proliferation of smartphones.

A controversial part about companies like NSO is that they usually rely on exploiting security holes in consumer software to help law enforcement and spies. For the companies to continue operating, these security holes need to be left unpatched.

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